Files are not being correctly backed up

[eversys]

We created a "File to Tape" job and selected various folders from a local directory. Our backup job runs without error.

Today, we wanted to do a file restore and were amazed to find out that several of the directories and files, have not been backed up! We have confirmed that we have full rights to the directories, and in file manager can browse them no problem. However, in Veeam Restore the directories cannot be seen.

Any idea what the problem could be?

[Vitaliy S.]

Is there anything in common between these directories? Could there be some specific configuration you use?

[eversys]

No... the problem is deep down into the directory structure. Via windows file manager we are able to browse the dirs no problem. However, im Veeam restore this is not possible. Other dirs are just fine.

What could this be? We are a little concerned as this is our main backup solution and at the moment we don't trust it! We need to restore these files and can't.

[seadave]

Running into the 256 character path+filename limit?

From: http://superuser.com/questions/811146/w ... characters

In Windows the default total path length must not exceed 260 characters (drive + :\ + 256 characters of filename + null terminator)

It's possible that your path to the folder was already very long, so the remaining part for your filename is just 129. If you want longer path, you have several solutions:
•use fully qualified file names with \\?\ prefix, this way you can use maximum 32767 characters in the path
•simply just rename the folders in the path to make it shorter
•subst/mount the folder containing the file into a drive character, this way you can use the maximum 256 characters for your file name

Read more: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1880 ... in-windows http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 85%29.aspx

I often run into problems where users have a share mounted and save a really long file name and then sometime later when I need to copy the parent folder of that share on a server it fails because of the excessive length of the path.

[Dima P.]

eversys,
Was ‘Use Microsoft volume shadow copy (VSS)’ checked in the File to tape job Options?

[eversys]

Running into the 256 character path+filename limit?

When this is the problem, then Veeam is not the backup solution we are looking for. We used to use either Symantec Backup Exec or System Recovery for our backup solution - here there were no problems with 256 character path+filenames and we were able to restore without problem.

Was ‘Use Microsoft volume shadow copy (VSS)’ checked in the File to tape job Options

Yes, this option was checked. However, we saw that VSS had not been activated for this volume.

[Dima P.]

eversys,

Running into the 256 character path+filename limit?

That should not cause any issues, as far as I know.

I have to ask you to open a support case, as it seems that your problem requires deep log analysis. Please let me know the case ID. Thank you.

[eversys]

Thanks d.popov. I have created a new case 00724518.

Can't be anything to do with 256 characters... in veeam restore we are unable to open the directory "D:\Empfang\ANGEBOTE\Kalkulation\." In Windows Explorer no problems at all. Also happen with other directories where we have full permissions.

[Dima P.]

Thank you. Will ask QA to take a look.